Australian Politicians Unite Against US Beef Imports in Trump Trade Talks

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Cross-party opposition emerged Friday to reports the Albanese government may allow increased American beef imports as part of trade negotiations with the Trump administration, with politicians warning such moves could devastate Australia's $8.4 billion beef export industry.

National Party Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie and Independent MP Zali Steggall both condemned the prospect during a Skynews First Edition televised panel discussion, citing biosecurity risks and concerns the government would sacrifice Australian farming interests for diplomatic gains.

"We need to be making decisions about importing beef based on science and the biosecurity risk posed by those imports, not in some sort of compromised deal or no deal trade-off with the United States," McKenzie said on Friday morning.

The criticism follows reports in nine newspapers suggesting the government may relax restrictions on American beef imports that have been in place since mad cow disease concerns emerged years ago. American beef has been largely restricted in Australia due to fears of disease spread, though the US has been critical of these limitations.

McKenzie said such a move would represent another blow to Australian farmers under what she called "one of the most anti-farming governments," pointing to recent decisions including the live sheep trade cancellation and proposed methane pledges.

"If these reports are true, we've seen we've got the live sheep trade cancelled, we've got the super tax on farmers, we've got the methane pledge and now potentially using our beef industry and our 63,000 beef farmers as a pawn in some sort of trade deal instead of basing these decisions on science," McKenzie said.

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